Grants

The Conservation Stewardship Program is a voluntary conservation program that helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resources concerns. Participants earn CSP payments for conservation performance ‐ the higher the performance, the higher the payment. Through CSP, participants take additional steps to improve the resource conditions on their land—including soil, air and habitat quality, water quality and quantity, and energy conservation. 

Recognizing that open space in our communities is crucial to the quality of our lives, PECO has committed to supporting municipalities, recreational authorities and nonprofits in Southeastern Pennsylvania with their ongoing efforts to preserve, protect and improve public spaces. The grants, which have a 50 percent match requirement, can be used with other funding sources to cover expenses related to open space projects, such as consulting fees, trail construction, land acquisition, habitat improvement and the cost of creating and implementing an open space plan.

To nominate a trail, please use the 2020 Trail of the Year nomination form. The Trail of the Year will be announced in January 2020 and will be recognized by several promotions and prizes, incuding a grant up to $10,000 for educational materials to promote safety and environmental protection. Please submit the nomination form and separately send all supporting materials to RA-explorepatrails@pa.gov.

SMIP projects are evaluated based on a variety of criteria, including total volume of stormwater managed, cost competitiveness and other environmental and educational benefits. Competitive applications will limit grant requests to $100,000 or less per impervious acre and manage at least the first 1” of runoff. Payments may not exceed the actual cost for the design and installation of the project. Applicants must be the property owner, PWD customer or tenant with permission from the property owner.